Screen color FAQ

[Big C]

Can we start a thread on this subject for beginners, such as:

1. During the first week, normal screen color is:

2. It's not uncommon for the screen to not turn green until at least _______ days have passed.

3. If your screen color is black, try _____ first, wait _____ days, then try:

4. If your screen color is yellow, you should:

5. If its been _____ days and your screen is still brown, you can try:

6. If no algae is growing in the center of your screen and you are using cfl bulbs, you can try:

7. Normal screen progression is from ___ then ____ after ____ days then ____ after ____ days. Your ultimate goal is green hair algae that is usually seen around day___ but may not be seen until day ___.

8. If you are using led lighting, you can use ____ led watts when 10 is recommended and _____ hours instead of 18 on and 6 off. Alternately you could use ___ led watts when 10 is recommended and use the 9 hours on and 15 off.

9. If your screen is large, and you still don't have green hair algae, you should _____ or _____.


Since I am a beginner, please use this as a template and make any corrections that are needed.

Please feel free to elaborate as necessary Thanks

[Wopadobop]

I can confidently answer #1 for you (I think)

during the first week normal screen color is BROWN!

#3 Is kind of odd imo.

If your screen is black , try CLEAN IT,(DARK growth is usually very high nutrients i.e. oil spill looking sludge) This dark growth blocks a lot of light and needs to be removed asap.

as for the rest I will let the more experienced scrubber peeps chime in.

[SantaMonica]

I have a lot screen photo's I'll be grouping into categories one day.

[kotlec]

I thing that could be very good FAQ for beginners and not only them.

[holidayz]

I have a lot screen photo's I'll be grouping into categories one day.

That's Great!!

[Floyd R Turbo]

1. During the first week, normal screen color is: Brown.

2. It's not uncommon for the screen to not turn green until at least 30 days have passed.

3. If your screen color is black, try cleaning every 3-4 days until nutrient drop. If that persists, you need more light

4. If your screen color is yellow (or gooey caramel colored) then generally your light is too high compared to the nutrients available. Increase flow, feed more, add iron. Reduce hours until you stop getting yellow, but you have to be careful because this can also reduce capacity unless the lighting is > 1W sq/in

5. If its been 14-21 days and your screen is still brown (but not black), you can try: more light

6. If no algae is growing in the center of your screen and you are using cfl bulbs, you can try: backing them off 1" per week until you don't get a burn spot

7. Normal screen progression is from brown slime then some green after 7-14 days then mostly green after 21-28 days. Your ultimate goal is green hair algae that is usually seen around day 28 but may not be seen until day 35.

8. If you are using led lighting, you can use ____ led watts when 10 is recommended and _____ hours instead of 18 on and 6 off. Alternately you could use ___ led watts when 10 is recommended and use the 9 hours on and 15 off.

This one doesn't quite 'fit' very well with this analogy. In general, you want a minimum of one high-power 660nm LED on each side of every 16-20 sq in of screen. The 660nm LEDs usually have a 700mA max current and 2.4V drop, so you're actually only getting 1.7W of power out of them, but they still call them 3W. So let's call them 3W so that we're consistent. With that said, if you had a 4.5 x 4.5 screen (20 sq in) then you would want 20W of CFL (10W per side) or 6W of 660nm Red LED (3W per side). So basically 1/3 the "wattage".

The alternate is to double that to 2 LEDs per side per 20 sq in. However I prefer to quadruple it and then add a diffuser. With 4x 3W per side, it 'adds up' to 12W, but is actually less than 7 and more than 2x the intensity. When you factor in the fact that there is no 'wasted bandwidth', e.g. there CFLs have a lot of useles light in them (so they really should be 'derated' to compare to LEDs) then LED wattage is more likely 3-4x as intense, as far as the algae is concerned.

9. If your screen is large, and you still don't have green hair algae, you should feed more (as long as your light appropriately matches the screen size)or reduce your screen according to what you actually feed (no more than 1.5x larger than what you actually feed).


At least that's my 2c

[kerry]

I am having great luck with running 4 LED's on each side of a 5x5 and 6x6 screen and I have a blue added to one side of each as well to test the growth difference. I also run a diffuser as well.

[Wopadobop]

I just ordered a new heat sink (6x9) from rapid led that has a slot for a splash guard welded in. fits a defuser quite well :) . So if you are asking for this faq because you are building your first scrubber and your going to go led's you might want to check them out.
http://www.rapidled.com/6-x-9-black-anodized-aluminum-heat-sink/

[Devaji108]

all great info thanks again for posting that bud...and I was thinking this thread was about the color of a new screen. lol i did see some red & blue ones when I got mine...:)_

[Floyd R Turbo]

haha yeah when my son was at the store and I was getting a few screens he insisted on getting an orange one.